[19] When he took this in his left hand, shunning the place in which the body of Alexander Lyncestes had lain a short time before, Amyntas said: “Whatever outcome awaits us, Sire, we confess that if it is favourable, we shall owe it to you; that if it is less so, we [20] shall attribute it to ill-fortune. We plead our cause without prejudice, bodies and minds both free; you have also even restored the apparel in which we are accustomed to attend you. We cannot distrust our cause, we shall cease to fear ill-fortune.
[21] “And, I pray you, allow me to meet first the charge which you last made against me. We, Sire, are conscious of no language directed against your majesty. I would say that you have long since risen superior to ill-will, if there were not danger lest you might believe that other more malicious words were [22] being purged away by flattering language. But even if some harsher speech had been heard from a soldier of yours, either when wearied and worn out on the march or encountering danger in battle, or in his tent when ailing and attending to his wounds, we have deserved by brave deeds that you should prefer to impute it to our exigency rather than to ill-will.
[23] Whenever anything especially sad happens, we are all criminals; we turn hostile hands against our own bodies, which we in no way hate; parents, if they oppose their children, become disliked and hated. On the other hand, when we are honoured by gifts, when we return loaded with prizes, who can endure us? who can master that enthusiasm of spirit? With soldiers neither their indignation nor their joy is restrained; we are carried away with violence to all emotions. We blame, we praise; we pity, we show anger, just as the present emotion affects us; now it pleases us to go to India and the Ocean, now the memory of wives and children and of fatherland causes opposition.
[25] “But to these thoughts, these words of those who talk together, the signal given by the trumpet puts an end; we hasten each to his own place in the ranks, and whatever anger had been conceived in the tent is discharged upon the heads of the enemy. Would that Philotas also had confined his wrongdoing to [26] words! Therefore let me return to the matter about which we are being accused. The friendship that we had with Philotas I am so far from denying, that I admit that we both sought from it and gained from it [27] great fruitage. Or indeed do you wonder that the son of Parrnenion, whom you have been pleased to have next in rank to yourself, surpassing almost all [28] your friends in distinction, was courted by us? You, by Heaven!, if you are willing to listen to the truth, Sire, are the cause of our present jeopardy. For who else brought it about that those who wished to please you should run to Philotas? It is because we were recommended by him that we have mounted to our present rank in your friendship; he held such a place in your estimation, that we might seek his [29] favour and fear his anger. Have we not, all of us soldiers, sworn, if not almost in your own words, at least in the form dictated by you, that we would regard the same men as enemies and friends as yourself? Bound as we were by this oath of loyalty, we were, forsooth, to be unfriendly to one [30] whom you preferred to all others! Therefore, if this is a crime, you have few who are blameless, nay, by Heaven, not one. For all wished to be friends of Philotas, but not all those who wished to be could be. So, if you do not distinguish his friends from the guilty, you will not separate, either, from his friends those who have wished to be such.
[31] “What evidence of guilty knowledge, then, is brought against us? I suppose it is because the day before he talked with us familiarly and without witnesses. But I could not excuse myself, if on that, day I had made any change in my former life and custom. So, now that on that day also which is the object of suspicion we did what we did every day, adherence to custom will free us from guilt.
[32] “But we did not hand over the horses to Antiphanes, and that too on the day before Philotas was unmasked. This will be a matter between me and Antiphanes. If he wished to expose us to suspicion because on that day we did not give him the horses, he will not be able to justify himself because he asked [33] for them then. For the guilt is in doubt as between him who retained them and him who demanded them, except that the cause of one who did not give up what was his own is better than that of one who [31] demanded what belonged to another. As a matter of fact, Sire, I had ten horses, of which Antiphanes had already distributed eight to those who had lost their own and I myself had left but two in all; when that most insolent man, at any rate the most unfair, wished to lead away these, I was forced to retain [35] them unless I wished to fight on foot. And I do not deny that I spoke to him in the spirit of a free man, addressing one of the basest and one who enjoyed only this privilege of military service, of distributing the horses of others to those who were going to fight. For it has come to this condition of evils, that I must excuse my words at the same time both to Alexander and to Antiphanes!
[36] “But, by Heaven! your mother has written that we are your enemies. Would that her solicitude for her son had been accompanied by more prudence, and that she had not through anxiety of mind pictured vain phantoms! For why does she not add the reason for her fear? finally, why does she not reveal the authority for it? By what deed or word of ours was [37] she moved to write you so agitated a letter? O wretched fortune of mine, since perhaps it is not more dangerous to be silent than to speak! But whatever the result may be, I prefer that it should be my manner of defence rather than my cause that displeases you. But you will admit what I am about to say; for you remember that when you sent me to bring soldiers from Macedonia, you said that there were many young men fit for service who were hidden [38] away in your mother’s palace. Therefore you instructed me that I should regard no one except you, but should bring to you those who declined military service. This I did, and I executed your order with more zeal than was expedient for me. I brought from there Gorgias, Hecataeus, and Gorgidas, who [39] are rendering you good service. What, then, is more unjust than that I, who, if I had not obeyed you, would justly have suffered punishment, should now die because I did obey? For your mother has no other reason for persecuting us than that we preferred [40] your advantage to a woman’s favour. I brought 6000 Macedonian infantry and 600 horsemen; a part of these would not have followed me, if I had been willing to show indulgence to those who shrank from military service. Therefore it follows that, because it is for that reason that she is angry with us, you should soothe your mother, since it is you who have exposed us to her anger.”
Dum haec Amyntas agit, forte supervenerunt, qui fratrem eius Polemonem, de quo ante est dictum, fugientem consecuti vinctum reducebant. Infesta contio vix inhiberi potuit, quin protinus suo more saxa in eum iaceret. [2] Atque ille sane interritus: ‘Nihil,’ inquit, ‘pro me deprecor, modo ne fratrum innocentiae fuga inputetur mea. Haec si defendi non potest, meum crimen sit. Horum ob id ipsum melior est causa, [3] quod ego, quia profugi, suspectus sum.’ At haec elocuto universa contio adsensa est: lacrimae deinde omnibus manare coeperunt adeo in contrarium repente mutatis, ut solum pro eo esset, quod maxime laeserat. [4] Iuvenis erat primo aetatis flore pubescens, quem inter equites tormentis Philotae conturbatos alienus terror abstulerat: desertum eum a comitibus et haesitantem inter revertendi fugiendique consilium, qui secuti erant, occupaverunt. [5] Is tum flere coepit et os suum converberare, maestus non suam vicem, sed propter ipsum periclitantium fratrum. [6] Moveratque iam [p. 206] regem quoque, non contionem modo, sed unus erat inplacabilis frater, qui terribili vultu intuens eum: ‘Tum,’ exclamat, ‘demens, lacrimare debueras, cum equo calcaria subderes, fratrum desertor et desertorum comes. [7] Miser, quo et unde fugiebas? Effecisti, ut reus capitis accusatoris uterer verbis.’ Ille peccasse sese gravius in fratres quam in semetipsum fatebatur. Tum vero neque lacrimis neque adclamationibus, quibus studia sua multitudo profitetur, temperaverunt. Una vox erat pari emissa consensu, ut insontibus et fortibus viris parceret. Amici quoque data misericordiae occasione consurgunt flentesque regem deprecantur. [8] Ille silentio facto: ‘Et ipse,’ inquit, ‘Amyntan mea sententia fratresque eius absolve Vos autem, iuvenes, malo beneficii mei oblivisci quam periculi vestri meminisse. Ead
em fide redite in gratiam mecum, qua ipse vobiscum revertor. [9] Nisi, quae delata essent, excussissem, aliquid de dissimulatione mea suspicari potuissetis: satius est purgatos esse quam suspectos. Cogitate neminem absolvi posse, nisi qui dixerit causam. [10] Tu, Amynta, ignosce fratri tuo. Erit hoc simpliciter etiam mihi reconciliati animi tui pignus.’ [11] Contione deinde dimissa Polydamanta vocari iubet. Longe acceptissimus Parmenioni erat, proximus lateri [p. 207] in acie stare solitus. [12] Et quam quam conscientia fretus in regiam venerat, tamen, ut iussus est fratres suos exhibere admodum iuvenes et regi ignotos ob aetatem, fiducia in sollicitudinem versa trepidare coepit, saepius, quae nocere possent, quam, quibus eluderet, reputans. [13] Iam armigeri, quibus imperatum erat, produxerant eos, cum exanguem metu Polydamanta propius accedere iubet summotisque omnibus: ‘Scelere,’ inquit, ‘Parmenionis omnes pariter adpetiti sumus, maxime ego аc tu, quos amicitiae specie fefellit. [14] Ad quem persequendum puniendumque — vide, quantum fidei tuae credam — te ministro uti statui. Obsides, dum hoc peragis, erunt fratres tui. [15] Proficiscere in Mediam et ad praefectos meos litteras scriptas manu mea perfer. Velocitate opus est, qua celeritatem famae antecedas. Noctu pervenire illuc te volo, postero die, quae scripta erunt, exequi. [16] Ad Parmeniona quoque epistulas feres, unam a me, alteram Philotae nomine scriptam. Signum anuli eius in mea potestate est. Si pater credit a filio inpressum, [17] cum te viderit, nihil metuet.’ Polydamas tanto liberatus metu inpensius etiam, quam exigebatur, promittit operam conlaudatusque et promissis oneratus deposita veste, quam habebat, Arabica indultur. [18] Duo Arabes, quorum interim coniuges ac [p. 208] liberi, vinculum fidei, obsides apud regem erant, dati comites. Per deserta etiam ob siccitatem loca camelis undecimo die, quo destinaverat, perveniunt. [19] Et priusquam ipsus nuntiaretur adventus, rursus Polydamas vestem Macedonicam sumit et in tabernaculum Cleandri — [20] praetor hic regius erat — quarta vigilia pervenit. Redditis deinde litteris constituerunt prima luce ad Parmenionem coire. Iamque ceteris quoque litteras regis attulerat, iam ad eum venturi erant, cum Parmenioni Polydamanta venisse nuntiaverunt. [21] Qui dum laetatur adventu amici, simulque noscendi, quae rex ageret, avidus — quippe longo intervallo nullam ab eo epistulam acceperat — [22] Polydamanta requiri iubet. Deversoria regionis illius magnos recessus habent amoenosque nemoribus manu consitis: [23] ea praecipue regum satraparumque voluptas erat. Spatiabatur in nemore Parmenion medius inter duces, quibus erat imperatum litteris regis, ut occiderent. Agendae autem rei constituerant tempus, cum Parmenion a Polydamante litteras traditas legere coepisset. [24] Polydamas procul veniens ut a Parmenione conspectus est vultu [p. 209] laetitiae speciem praeferente, ad conplectendum eum cucurrit mutuaque salutatione facta Polydamas epistulam a rege scriptam ei tradidit. [25] Parmenion vinculum epistulae solvens, quidnam rex ageret, requirebat. Illе ex ipsis litteris cogniturum esse respondit. [26] Quibus Parmenion lectis: ‘Rex,’ inquit, ‘expeditionem parat in Arachosios. Strenuum hominem et numquam cessantem! Sed tempus saluti suae tanta iam parta gloria parcere.’ [27] Alteram deinde epistulam Philotae nomine scriptam laetus, quod ex vultu notari poterat, legebat: tum eius latus gladio haurit Cleander, deinde iugulum ferit, ceteri exanimum quoque confodiunt. [28] Et armigeri, qui ad primum aditum nemoris adstiterant, cognita caede, cuius causa ignorabatur, in castra perveniunt et tumultuoso nuntio milites concitant. [29] Illi armati ad nemus, in quo perpetrata caedes erat, coeunt et, ni Polydamas ceterique eiusdem noxae participes dedantur, murum circumdatum nemori eversuros denuntiant omniumque sanguine duci parentaturos. [30] Cleander primores eorum intromitti iubet litterasque regis scriptas ad milites recitat, quibus insidiae Parmenionis in regem precesque, ut ipsum vindicarent, continebantur. [31] Igitur cognita regis voluntate non quidem indignatio, sed tamen seditio conpressa est. Dilapsis [p. 210] pluribus pauci remanserunt, qui, saltem ut corpus ipsis sepelire permitterent, precabantur. [32] Diu id negatum est Cleandri metu, ne offenderet regem. Pertinacius deinde precantibus materiem consternationis subtrahendam ratus capite deciso truncum humare permisit: [33] ad regem caput missum est. Hic exitus Parmenionis fuit, militiae domique clari viri. Multa sine rege prospere, rex sine illo nihil magnae rei gesserat. Felicissimo regi et ad omnia ad fortunae suae exigenti modum satisfecit. LXX natus annos iuvenis ducis et saepe etiam gregarii militis munia explevit: acer consilio, manu strenuus, carus principibus, vulgo militum acceptior. [34] Haec inpulerint illum ad regni cupiditatem an tantum suspectum fecerint, ambigi potest, quia, Philotas ultimis cruciatibus victus verane dixerit, quae facta probari non poterant, an falsis tormentorum petierit finem, re quoque recenti, cum magis posset liquere, dubitatum est. [35] Alexander, quos libere mortem Parmenionis conquestos esse conpererat, separandos a cetero exercitu ratus in unam cohortem secrevit ducemque his Leonidam dedit, et ipsum Parmenioni quondam intima familiaritate coniunctum. [36] Fere idem erant, quos alioqui rex habuerat invisos. Nam cum experiri vellet militum animos, admonuit, qui litteras in Macedoniam ad suos scripsisset, iis, quos ipse mittebat, perlaturis cum [p. 211] fide traderet. Simpliciter ad necessarios suos quisque scripserat, quae sentiebat: aliis gravis erat, plerisque non ingrata militia. [37] Ita et agentium gratias et querentium litterae exceptae sunt. Et, qui forte taedium laboris per litteras erant questi, hanc seorsus cohortem a ceteris tendere ignominiae causa iubet, fortitudine usurus in bello, libertatem linguae ab auribus credulis remoturus. Id consilium, temerarium forsitan — quippe fortissimi iuvenes contumelia inritati erant — , sicut omnia alia felicitas regis excepit. [38] Nihil illis ad bella promptius fuit: incitabat virtutem et ignominiae demendae cupido et, quia fortia facta in paucis latere non poterant.
II. While Amyntas was making this plea, those chanced to arrive who had pursued his brother Polemon, of whom mention has been made before, and whom, being in flight, they were bringing back in bonds. The incensed assembly could hardly be restrained from at once stoning him to death, according to their custom. But he, quite unterrified, said: [2] “I ask no mercy for myself, provided my flight be not prejudicial to the innocence of my brothers. If this cannot be defended, let the guilt be mine. Their cause is the better for the very reason that I was [3] suspected because I took flight.” But when he had said this, the whole assembly sympathized; now they all began to shed tears, and were suddenly so changed to the opposite opinion that what had especially damaged his cause was the only thing that was [4] in his favour. He was a young man just come to maturity and in the first bloom of his youth, one of the horsemen who had been terrified by the torture of Philotas and whom the alarm of others had led to flee; deserted by his companions, and wavering between the purpose of returning and of fleeing, he was overtaken by those who had followed him.
[5] He then began to weep and to beat his face, not grieving on his own account, but on that of his brothers, who were endangered through him.
[6] And now he had affected the king also, and not only the assembly, but his brother alone was inexorable, and gazing at him with a terrifying expression, exclaimed: “Then, madman, is when you ought to have wept, when you were applying spurs to your horse, a deserter of your brothers and a companion of deserters. Wretch, whither were you fleeing and from whom? You have forced me, on trial for my [7] life, to use the words of an accuser.” Polemon confessed that he had sinned more grievously against his brothers than against himself. Then truly the soldiers did not moderate their tears and the acclamations by which a crowd expresses its favour. One cry was uttered by common consent, that the king should pardon these brave and blameless men. His friends also, when opportunity for mercy had been [8] given, arose and with tears appealed to the king. He, having silenced them, said: “I myself by my vote acquit Amyntas and his brothers. But as for you, young men, I prefer that you should forget my kindness rather than remember your danger. Return to favour with me with the same confidence with which [9] I myself return to favour with you. If I had not examined what had been reported to me, you might have been able to feel some suspicion of my silence; it is better to be justified than to be suspected. Remember that no one can be acquitted unless he has [1
0] pleaded his cause. Do you, Amyntas, pardon your brother. This will be a pledge that your feelings are sincerely reconciled with me also.”
[11] Then he dismissed the assembly and ordered Polydamas to be called. He was by far the dearest of Parmenion’s friends, accustomed to stand by his side [12] in battle. And although, relying on a clear conscience, he had come into headquarters, yet when he was ordered to produce his brothers, who were very young and unknown to the king because of their youth, his confidence changed to anxiety and he began to be afraid, considering more frequently what could harm them than by what means he could parry [13] such attacks.” And now the guards who had been ordered to do so had brought them in, when the king ordered Polydamas, deathly pale with fear, to draw nearer, and, removing all witnesses, said: — We have all alike been attacked by the crime of Parmenion, especially you and I, whom he has deceived by the [14] guise of friendship. To pursue and punish him — see how much I trust to your loyalty — I have decided to use you as my instrument. While you are doing [16] this, your brothers will be hostages. Set out for Media and take letters, written in my own handwriting, to my prefects. There is need of great speed, in order to outstrip the swiftness of rumour. I wish you to arrive there by night, and on the following [16] day to carry out what has been written. You will also take letters to Parmenion, one from me, the other written in the name of Philotas. The seal of his ring is in my possession. If his father believes that this was impressed by his son, he will fear nothing when he sees you.” —
Delphi Complete Works of Quintus Curtius Rufus Page 107
